1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to using and testing devices or compounds which reduce onset of symptoms of median nerve entrapment or carpal tunnel syndrome or repetitive stress syndrome, reduce tactile deficit of fingers, and increase identification of foreign mass in breast and other self examinations, disability accommodation, medical and physical therapy, cancer discovery and prevention. Devices will improve the movement of the fingers, reduce the inflammation in the carpal canal, reduce the tendon excursion in the carpal canal, reduce finger flexion, reduce loss of nerve sensation, reduce loss of tactile sensation, increase tactile sensitivity of the fingers, increase movement of the dorsal interossei muscles of the hand, increase movement of the volar interossei palmar muscles of the hand, and increase movement of the lumbrical muscles of fingers, as well as many other applications.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Rehabilitation and prevention of median nerve entrapment has generally dealt with wrist angle, body posture, and fatigue, rather than finger movement. Most authors consider the wrist flexion of prime importance. “Within the work place, repetitive wrist flexion and extension and continuous use of the fingers with the wrist either extended or more commonly flexed palmarly are the usual hazards associated with this cumulative trauma disorder syndrome.” (23A) pp. 1347 et seq, at 1373.
“ . . . intracanal pressure rises with flexion and extension.” (24B) at 348. Similarly, subcutaneous cancer prevention, has focused on self examination instruction rather than the ability to tactilely identify a foreign mass. Thus, neither biomechanics of engineering nor medical research has related the health of the finger tips with preservation of the sensory and motor operations of the nerves.
For a subcombination usable together in a single combination, yet distinct and separately useable, see U.S. Pat. No. 6,692,435 issue date 17 Feb. 2004.
2A. Background of the Invention: Keyboards
Communication has always been necessary. By the end of the Second Millennium A.D. keyboards and computers have become ubiquitous, to inform, solve, record, measure, compose, design, entertain and plan. Until the typewriter was invented, all written communication was one handed. The typewriter allowed two handed composition, and an increase in efficiency by an increase in finger flexion.
For a discussion of the QWERTY, Dvorak and efficient keyboard layouts see U.S. Pat. No. 5,352,050, 1996 U.S. Pat. No. 5,498,088.,1872 circa. Sholes created the QWERTY keyboard (based on the left six letters on the third row). According to Beeching, Sholes' ruse was “probably one of the biggest confidence tricks of all time . . . the idea that the so-called ‘scientific arrangement’ of the keys was designed to give a minimum movement of the hands was, in fact, completely false!” In 1873, the Remington Company bought Sholes' patent for the ‘typewriter’ and began shipping it in 1874. In 1905 an international conference of typewriter manufacturers and teachers decided the future of print communication. The QWERTY layout was adopted because typing teachers had been teaching QWERTY for decades. According to Beeching: “The battle raged backwards and forwards. Nobody could agree on what a new keyboard should be, but the biggest opposition came from teachers of typing. As it still does today. They wanted things to remain as they were, and they are still the most reluctant to change their methods and learn all over again. All present keyboards are, therefore, based on the ‘QWERTY’ layout.” (5) pg. 40-41.
QWERTY has its critics: “awkward . . . designed to slow typing” (46). “worse possible arrangement” Typists' Speed & Efficiency, by Virginia Russell, Computer Technology Review, Winter 1985; “very poor” Illustrated World Encyclopedia, Vol 14, 1970, Glen Cove, New York, p. 4694; “wrong thing” interview in Conquering the Keyboard, by Robert Alonso, Personal Computing, August 1985, at 72; “costly . . . error . . . slows . . . produces fatigue” U.S. Pat. No. 3,847,263, 1974, col. 1, USPTO; inefficient” U.S. Pat. No. 4,655,621, 1987, column 1, USPTO; “not the best . . . (makes) much more work” 1994 Compton's Encyclopedia, Typewriter p. 342; and also see “The Case Against QWERTY” at National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Wash. D.C. circa 1992. As of 1998, QWERTY continues as the standard keyboard layout.
Since Sholes, several inventors have designed keyboards to increase efficiency, increase speed, reduce awkward positions, reduce cramping, avoid rhythm slow down, reduce errors, and reduce fatigue. These include Rowell, Hoke, Dvorak, Bower, Dodds, X, Einbinder, Malt, Menn, Holder, and Diernisse. Recent efforts include:
1991. Key Arrangement and Method of Inputting information from a key arrangement, U.S. Pat. No. 5,003,301. Romberg selects Bower's letters for the home row.
1994. Keyboard Arrangement to maximize typing speed and ease of transition from a Qwerty keyboard. U.S. Pat. No. 5,352,050, 1996 U.S. Pat. No. 5,498,088. Choate places Bower's letters on home row.
1998. Novel Keyboard arrangements and method for increasing typing speed. Application Ser. No. 08/652,109 issuing as U.S. Pat. No. 5,718,590. Choate outlines a method of training.
Although a report on telephone company employees concluded the use of DVORAK versus QWERTY keyboard was not associated significantly with any listed musculoskeletal outcome measures. (22) The methodology of the report was deficient as the questionnaire sampled a small portion of the work force, and did not seek information or compare workmen's compensation claims or absenteeism, even though both statistics were available company wide. “Hadler's analysis of the U.S. West case casts doubt, in his opinion, on occupational causation of these CTDs. He implicated the following locally intrinsic geographic factors which, he felt, accounted for the increased reports and disability in the Denver area: increased worker complaints, psychosocial factors, health services that were more receptive to the work relatedness of complaints, and increased utilization of surgical intervention among physicians in the community.” Hadler, N: Arm Pain in the workplace: a small area analysis, J. Occup Med 34(2):113-119, 1992. (53) Hadler noted a significant geographic variation in incidence of CTS (approaching ten fold in four of the U.S. West states). Ibid at 49. The operators reporting the ten fold increase of CTS were in states using QWERTY. (58)
Since Sholes, many efficient layouts have been invented. Each reducing the flexion and travel of the fingers.
2B. Background of the Invention: Health, Median Nerve Entrapment
i. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
“Carpal Tunnel syndrome” refers to the compression of the median nerve (due to inflammation of flexor retinaculum, arthritis, or tenosynovitis) as it passes through the osteofibrous carpal tunnel along with the tendons of the long digital muscles which typically results in paresthesia (tingling), anesthesia (loss of tactile sensation), or hypesthesia (diminished sensation) in skin areas related to the thumb, index, middle, and lateral ½ of ring fingers. The palm may be saved due to palmar cutaneous branch arising superficial to flexor retinaculum. A progressive loss of strength and coordination in thumb with diminished use of thumb, index, and middle fingers as nerve is compressed is also common. Carpal Tunnel syndrome is relieved by partial or complete division of the flexor retinaculum.” “University of Minnesota researchers estimate between 400,000 and 500,000 carpal tunnel surgery cases occur annually in the United States, with economic costs in excess of $2 billion a year.” (52)
Since the early sixties, CTS has been attributed to bent wrists, (“What causes CTS? Work activities and hobbies that keep the wrist bent for a long time, or that require pinching or gripping motions. Examples include: typing or working at a computer keyboard.” (15)) and not to finger flexion.
Different keyboard layouts' (to wit: QWERTY, DVORAK and AsInRedHot) permit different tendon movement within the carpal canal.(46) Angular movements of the fingers place greater stress on the carpal tunnel than just simply depressing a key. “While the amount of movement on a particular key is exactly the same in the keyboards we used, the problem is the large number of times you have to go to the top and bottom rows using QWERTY. As soon as you move from the home row, you increase the angular motion of the fingers and sliding motion of the tendons, which increases the potential for CTDs. Our hypothesis was that excessive tendon motion in the carpal canal induces trauma to the nearby tissues. It appears that alternative key location is a good way to reduce finger and tendon motion.” (46B) Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) is caused by swelling of the flexor tendons and compression of the median nerve within the carpal canal. The main structures in close proximity to the median nerve are the finger flexor tendons—Flexor Digitorum Profundus and Superficialis. Thickening of the flexor tendon sheaths, secondary to repetitive motion, has been implicated as a cause for compression of the median nerve (Werner et al. 1983). Cyclic loading tests on the profundus tendons have shown that stress transmitted to the sheath during excursion is significant and a cause of cumulative strain (Goldstein et al 1967). The highly repetitive sliding motion of the tendons through the canal might not only produce tendinitis or tenosynovitis but focal damage to the nerve as well. ((46) p. 195)
The angle data was incorporated into a predictive model developed by Armstrong and Chaffin (1978), which relates the finger and two extrinsic finger flexors, profundus and superficialis, as a pulley system dependent on the joint angle and tendon moment arm. Joint thickness measurements were taken of each subject as described in the Collation of Anthropometry (Garrett et al. 1961). ((46) p. 195.) Total tendon motion for typing on a matched sample on the QWERTY, DVORAK and ASINREDHOT layouts provided results. (Ibid.) Two of three subjects on the DVORAK and ASINREDHOT layouts required less total tendon excursion than typing on the QWERTY layout. (Ibid.)
ii. Conditions for Swelling
Keyboard users afflicted with these disabilities will be helped by the invention in reducing finger extension and flexion, as compared to QWERTY. Besides observing that most CTS sufferers are women, aged 40 to 60, authors have attributed CTS to a wide variety of metabolic and non-metabolic conditions, which are listed below. Causes and sources, or associated metabolic and non-metabolic conditions of CTS listed in (42-26) and (1). For a listing and definition of about a bakers dozen of conditions see U.S. Pat. No. 5,718,590, under help examples.
The pathology includes one or more of the following: aberrant anatomy, acidosis, acromegalic arthritis, acromegaly, acrosclerosis, acute wasting paralysis, acute ascending paralysis, acute anterior poliomyelitis, adenohypophysis, aerobic exercise, aging, alcoholism, amyloidosis, anemia, aneurysms, angina, apoplexy, arachnodactyly, arteriolar disease, arteriosclerosis, arteriovenous malformation, artery, arthritis of rheumatic fever, arthritis, atrophic arthritis, atrophy, backward cardiac failure, baseball finger, Bence-Jones protein, benign tumor, birth palsy, blood vessel, bone marrow, bony ankylosis, brachial plexus, brachial birth palsy, brachial paralysis, brachialgia, brain, brain abscess, Buerger's disease, bulbar apoplexy, burn, bursitis, calcinosis, calcium, calcium deposits, callus, canal volume increased, canal volume decreased, capillary walls, cardiac failure, carpal bones, carpal tunnel syndrome, carpometacarpal joint arthritis, cartilage, cataract, central nervous system, cerebral vessels, cerebral palsy, cervical adenitis, cervical spine arthritis, cervical radiculopathy, Charcot's arthritis, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disorder, chorionitis, chronic arthritis, cigarette smoking, clubbed finger, collagen, coma, congestive, connective tissue, consciousness, contraceptive pills, cretinism, cyst of joint capsule, cyst of semi-lunar cartilage, cystic tumor of tendon sheath, cystic, dactylitis syphilitica, debility, deep palmar retroflexor space abscess, deformity, degenerative joint disease, degenerative conditions, deltoid, demineralization, dermatosclerosis, diabetes, diabetes mellitus, diabetic polyneuropathy, digital neuropathies individual, digital arteries, digits, disuse osteoporosis, dolichostenomelia, dropsy, drumstick finger, dyspnea, dystrophia myotonica, ear, edema, embolism, endocrine organs, eosinophilic cells, epicondylitis, epidemic paralysis, epidermis, Erb-Duchenne syndrome, erythroid myeloma, extracranial lesions, extravasation, fascia, fibromyalgia syndrome, flaccid paralysis, fracture, ganglion, gastric, gastrointestinal, glycosuria, gonococcus, gonorrheal arthritis, gout, gouty tophus, gouty arthritis, granulation, gumma, hammer finger, Haversian spaces, head injury, heart failure, heart, Heberden's arthritis, Heine-Medin's disease, hematogenous arthritis, hematoma, hemic myeloma, hemodialysis, hemolytic streptococcus, hemophilic arthritis, hemorrhage, hereditary conditions, high blood pressure, Hippocratic finger, hunger, hydrostatic pressure, hypercalcemia, hyperemia, hyperesthesia, hyperfunction, hyperglobulinemia, hyperglycemia, hypermotility, hyperplasia, hypertension, hypertrophic pulmonary osteoarthropathy, hypertropyhic reaction, hypothyroidism, incoordination, infantile paralysis, infection, infectious arthritis, infectious conditions, inflammation, inflammatory conditions, insulin, intracranial lesions, ischemic paralysis, joint capsule, joint surface, Kahler's disease, ketosis, Klumpke palsy, knuckle, lead palsy, leprosy, lesion, leukocytosis, lipoma, lock finger, luxation, lymph, lymphocytic myeloma, lymphoid myeloma, malignant, mallet finger, malnutrition osteoporosis, Marfan's syndrome, marrow, mass lesion, median nerve entrapment, medulla oblongata, menopausal arthritis, menopause, menstruation, metabolic, migraines, mucoid hyaluronic acid, mucopolysaccharidosis, multiple sclerosis, muscle spasms, muscle tenderness, muscular dystrophy, myelocytic sarcoma, myeloid myeloma, myeloid tumor, myeloma, myeloma multiple, myofascial dysfunction, myosclerosis, myotonia dystrophica, myotonic dystrophy, myxedema, neoplastic conditions, neuritis, neurological, neurons, neuropathic arthritis, neuropathies individual, neurotrophic arthritis, obesity, obstetric paralysis, osmotic pressure, ossification, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, palsy, paralysis, paralytic poliomyelitis, phalangectomy, phalangitis, phalangitis syphilitica, phalangization, phalangophalangeal amputation, phalanx, phosphatase, phosphorus, plasma, plasma cell myeloma, plasmacytes, plasmacytic myeloma, plasmacytic sarcoma, plasmacytoma, plasmocytic sarcoma, plasmocytic myeloma, plasmocytoma, plasmona, pneumococcus, polio, poliomyelitis polyneuritis, pons, postinjury, postmenopausal osteoporosis, power grip, pregnancy, prenatal syphilis, printer's palsy, proliferative arthritis, pronator syndrome, protein concentration, proximal lumbrical insertion, proximal median neuropathy, psychosis of hysterical numbness and clenched-fist syndrome, pulmonary, punctiform, Quervain's disease, Quinquaud's phenomenon, radiation neuritis, radiohumeral articulation, radiohumeral bursitis, radiohumeral epicondylitis, Raynaud's syndrome, Recklinghausen's disease, reflex sympathetic dystrophy, renal failure, respiratory, reticular fibers, rheumatic fever, rheumatoid arthritis, rheumatoid tenosynovitis, ruptured disk, sanguineous apoplexy, scarlatinal synovitis, scarlatinal arthritis, scarlet fever, scleriasis, scleroderma, seal finger, seizures idiopathic peripheral causes, senile, osteoporosis, senility, skeleton, sodium urate, spastic diplegia, spider finger, spinal nerves, spinal cord, spinal cord lesions, splanchnomegaly, sprain fracture, springfinger, Steinert's disease, stellate cells, stroke, subchondral spaces, subdural hematoma, sugar tolerance, swallow, swelling, symmetrical synovitis, syndactyly, synovectomy, synovial, synovial tissues, synovial distention, synovial proliferation nonspecific, synovitis, synovium nonspecific fibrosis, syphilitic arthritis, syringomyelia, systemic disease, tabes dorsalis, tactile anesthesia, tendinitis, tendon sheath, tendons, tendovaginitis stenosans, tenosynovitis, thirst, thoracic outlet syndrome, thrombosed, thrombosis, thyroid hormone, thyroid conditions, tophaceous gout, trabeculae, transient ischemic attacks, trauma, traumatic conditions, tremors, trigger finger, tuberculosis, tuberculous tenosynovitis, tuberous sclerosis, tumor, tumor benign, ulnar nerve neuropathy, uremia, uric acid, urine, vascular spasm, vascular conditions, vasculitis, vasomotor disturbances, viscera, Volkmann's paralysis, weakness, webbed fingers, weeping sinew, weight, white-finger syndrome, or wrist malalignment.
iii. Tendons at Work
1. Carpal tunnel syndrome (herein also “CTS”) among computer keyboard users stems from the original design of the QWERTY keyboard. “In the industrial setting, certain jobs that require repetitive flexion, extension, or deviation of the wrist have been associated with the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome . . . computer keyboard work . . . ” (24B) CTS is a subclass of cumulative trauma disorders (CTDs). For a survey of the medical literature, see (53).
Carpal tunnel syndrome is caused when membranes of tendons in the carpal tunnel of the forearm and hand thicken and press nerve up against the bones. “Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), a painful disorder of the wrist and hand, has lately been the subject of much publicity and even litigation, when injured workers have taken employers to court. CTS is one of many injuries caused by repeated strain, such as that produced by working long hours at a computer, and it's on the rise. Thousands of cases are diagnosed each year. . . . Deriving its name from the Greek karpos, or wrist, the carpal tunnel is the passageway, composed of bone and ligament, through which a major nerve system of the forearm passes into the hand. The carpal tunnel is like a cable for the median nerve and nine tendons. The nerve supplies sensation and controls the muscles in part of the hand, and the tendons allow the fingers to flex. The wear and tear of repeated movement may thicken the lubricating membrane of the tendons, increasing pressure inside the carpal tunnel and pressing the nerve up against the bone. This process, called nerve entrapment, can be caused not only by repetitive strain, but by bone dislocation or fracture, arthritis, diabetes, or fluid retention (as may occur in pregnancy)—anything that narrows the tunnel and compresses the nerve and tendons.” (3). “As . . . fingers are flexed or extended, the tendons and the median nerve within the carpal canal must be able to glide relative to the canal as well as to each other.” (42-26). Repetitive trauma overwhelms a tissue's ability to repair itself.(9A) Repetitive Digit flexion causes swelling of tendons. “Repetitive digital flexion in an individual unaccustomed to such activity can induce significant tenosynovitis of the digital flexors.” (8A)
The carpal tunnel has a roof of the transverse carpal ligament, to contain the tendons of flexor pollicis longus, flexor digitorum superficialis, and flexor digitorum profundus, the median nerve and artery.(24B) The swelling of these tissues presses the median nerve against this roof. “The median nerve, the softest and most volar structure in the carpal canal, is brought against the transverse carpal ligament, especially when there is forceful digital flexion with simultaneous wrist flexion. The nine long flexor tendons, when tensed, compress the median nerve against this ligament.” (12) at p. 235.
2. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is the name (“Moersch coined the name of the syndrome in 1938.” 23B) for the symptoms of median nerve entrapment. Also called the three and a half finger disease, median nerve neuropathy, compression nerve injury, repetitive motion disorder, occupational overuse syndrome, repetitive strain injury, cumulative trauma disorder, dynamic carpal tunnel syndrome. Ibid at 23B) In which the thumb, index, middle and half of ring fingers have tingling and numbness. Paresthesia or dysesthesia of radial 3½ fingers.(7) Pressure on the median nerve occurs within the carpal tunnel. Nine flexor tendons, the median artery, and carpal ligament, are the structures adjacent to the median nerve. These swelling tissues press the median nerve. “Increased bulk may result in median nerve compromise at the . . . flexor digitorum sublimis”. (9A) at 231. Injury to the tendons leads to inflammation. “ . . . accumulated injury to . . . tendons, . . . leading to inflammation . . . ” 1986 National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) report cited in (53) at 48. Flexing tendons can aggravate inflammation causing tendon sheaths to swell. Tendons can hypertrophy, (21A, 21B. 21C) and swelling can be seen in the forearm above the wrist creases. “The swelling is visualized just proximal to the wrist flexion creases because of the unyielding transverse carpal ligament. Pain aggravated by finger motion can be reported all along the volar surface of the forearm. Median nerve compression can also occur and produce severe pain.” (8A)
Among others, two possible reasons why repetitive finger flexion aggravates carpal tunnel syndrome are: The first is tendon excursion irritates and inflames the synovial sheaf to cause swelling (tenosynovitis). “Compression of the median nerve within the carpal tunnel can be attributed to . . . an increase in volume of tunnel contents secondary to tenosynovitis, or thickening of the transverse carpal ligament.” (26E) “Most of (CTS) cases probably are caused by nonspecific tenosynovitis of the flexor tendons.” (24A) (Also described as the hypertrophy or edema of the synovium of the transverse carpal ligament), (24B). The second is due to exercise, the tendons themselves hypertrophy.
iv. Wrist flexion or Finger Flexion
The University of California, Berkeley, health letter proposes that repeated finger movement promotes nerve entrapment. “The carpal tunnel is like a cable for the median nerve and nine tendons. The nerve supplies sensation and controls the muscles in part of the hand, and the tendons allow the fingers to flex. The wear and tear of repeated movement may thicken the lubricating membrane of the tendons, increasing pressure inside the carpal tunnel and pressing the nerve up against the bone. This process, called nerve entrapment, can be caused not only by repetitive strain, but by . . . anything that narrows the tunnel and compresses the nerve and tendons.” (3) “Repetitive wrist/finger movement with loading of the tendons in the carpal tunnel;” is one of six major occupational factors for CTS. Silverstein B A: Fine L J, Armstrong T J: Carpal tunnel syndrome: causes and a preventative strategy, Semin Occup Med 1:213-21, 1986. Cited in (53), at 50. Finger movements with a flexed wrist can cause tendons in the carpal tunnel to be displaced against adjacent walls, causing eventual inflammation, swelling, and median nerve compression. Armstrong T J: An ergonomic guide to carpal tunnel syndrome, Akron, 1983, American Industrial Hygiene Association. Cited Ibid. This invention will test whether the same inflammation and swelling can be induced without a “flexed wrist.”
See CTS research for swelling.(53) A swollen tendon can press the median nerve. “Conditions that increase the volume contained within the carpal tunnel, such as a swollen tendon or muscle anomaly, or decrease the area of the tunnel, as after a fracture, can increase CT pressure and compress the only structure with elasticity in the canal—the median nerve.” Ibid (53) at 53. Some CTS patients relate subjective feelings of swelling, although there may be no apparent swelling on examination.(54) Hands swell after hand stress testing. “Braun et al. studied provocative stress testing in 40 patients which they diagnosed as having “dynamic CTS.” These patients had transient symptoms which occurred with stressful activity and resolved with rest or elevation. Hand volume (by a standardized water displacement method) and monofilament testing were examined before and after hand stress testing. . . . Hand swelling was documented in 34 patients after stress testing, with 17 of theses accompanied by quantitative sensory loss.” (55)
Overuse syndromes result from repetitive loading episodes at a force or elongation level well within the physiologic range.(8A)
Preventing carpal tunnel syndrome is better, than the repeated treatment of the syndrome by release of the deep transverse carpal ligament. “As carpal tunnel syndrome becomes increasingly recognized in the work place as a repetitive trauma or cumulative trauma syndrome, it seems more and more certain that modification of the work environment by redistribution of work mechanics, modification of tools and handles to be more compatible with hand function, and the attention of biomechanical engineering designed to protect the worker will create a focus on the prevention of this syndrome, rather than the repeated treatment of the syndrome by release of the deep transverse carpal ligament. An important part of the evaluation of industrial biomechanics will be the evaluation of the employee prior to assumption of a position in the work place, combined with a knowledge of the amount of stress applied to the worker's hands in a particular working environment. It should then be possible, through knowing the stress to which the worker is exposed in doing a specific job and that worker's capacity for stress, to provide a suitable match of the worker's abilities with the job requirement and thereby, hopefully, to reduce the incidence of cumulative trauma or stress related carpal tunnel syndrome.”(23B)
Evidence is moving toward acceptance of workplace factors in the etiology of carpal tunnel syndrome, but clear proof, as well as “dose-response curve,” the amount of repetitive motion required to cause carpal tunnel syndrome, is not available. (1) at 1377.
Repetitive motion and carpal tunnel syndrome are described: “Work-related forceful repetitive motion contributes to (CTS)”(56); “work-related repetitive motion is only one of many factors that can aggravate (CTS)”; Colorado orthopedic surgeon Willard Schuler, M.D. quoted. (42-32) “Working on a keyboard all day can put you at (risk of RSI)”. (57)
v. The body is all one piece. Upper extremity nerve pathology includes one or more of the following: reduced flexion and extension, in, on or about, at least one of the abductor, elbow, extensor tendon, finger, fingernails, flexor retinaculum, flexor tendon, flexor superficialis muscle, forearm, hand, humerus, interosseous muscles, ligament carpal dorsale, long flexor muscle, median artery, median nerve, middle phalanx, middle finger, palm, palmaris brevis, palmaris longus, palmaris longus tendon, periarticular tissue, phalangeal joints, radial nerve, thumb, transverse carpal ligament, or wrist.
2C. Background of the Invention: Health, Oncology Chronic repetitive digital flexion injures the median nerve. “Digital flexor tenosynovitis at the wrist commonly causes signs and symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome . . . This condition may occur after a hyperextension injury to the wrist or after chronic repetitive digital flexion.” p. 97. (7) The flexor tendons have the central role for median nerve entrapment. “Phalen reported that the most common cause of carpal tunnel syndrome was fibrosis or thickening of the flexor synovium secondary to a chronic, nonspecific tenosynovitis of the flexor tendons in the carpal tunnel.” (26E) The position of the center of pressure is highly correlated to the relative positions of the nerve and the tendons.
Conservative treatments for pain from the median nerve include wrist splints, and changing jobs. But what of the rest who can't change jobs, or for whom wrist splints aggravate their condition? Left untreated, a compressed nerve will cause atrophy to the muscles which it innervates. Hence, CTS cases not responding to conservative treatment receive surgery, i.e. sectioning the transverse carpal ligament. Complications of this surgery include scarring, incomplete release, laceration, tendon adhesion, and lack of grip strength recovery. (24B) at 352. Complications include fracture, injury to nerves, neuropraxis, transection of the nerve, injury to artery, injury to palmer arch, hematoma, infection, and reflex sympathetic dystrophy at a rate of between two tenths and twelve percent.(24C) Despite the complications, carpel tunnel release is the most frequent hand and wrist surgery performed in the United States, “ . . . approximately 463,673 carpal tunnel releases performed annually in the United States . . . ” (24D)
“University of Minnesota researchers estimate between 400,000 and 500,000 carpal tunnel surgery cases occur annually in the United States, with economic costs in excess of $2 billion a year . . . ” (52), with a 15 to 20 percent failure rate, (1) at 1376, and ten percent inappropriate procedure rate.(28) Because of the vast numbers of people involved, the totally disabilitating nature of the disease, the indispensable part of the body which is affected, and its seeming imperviousness to prevention, CTS rivals arthritis and exceeds polio for the harm it is causing America. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is the “PC polio” of the nineties.
There are 40,000 carpal release surgeries each month in the United States; it is the #1 hand operation. These surgeries are supposed to be stage 3 carpal tunnel syndrome, meaning loss of sensation from the median nerve, tingling or pain to the hands and fingertips, both day and night; patients also suffer numbness in the finger tips, have trouble picking up coins, turning keys, and doing fine motor tasks. Eighty percent of the carpal tunnel syndrome cases are women, so probably the vast majority of the release surgeries are on women. Eighty percent of 40,000 indicates there may be 32,000 women with stage 3 having surgery operations every month. Further injury to the median nerve resulting from the carpal release surgeries ranges from 0.2 to 12%. Thus, between 64 to 4,000 women per month have their nerves further injured in wrist surgery.
Breast cancer and carpal tunnel syndrome are female gender diseases, in that the majority of cases are female. There are no known means of preventing breast cancer. (Cancer Nursing, October '87, 385). One in nine women develop breast cancer in their lifetime, thus 6 to 400 of the monthly nerve injured women patients are at risk to develop breast cancer in their lifetime. The same reasoning can apply to arthritis, leprosy, scleroderma, or any thing that ruins sense of touch.
Breast self exam (BSE) is the first and best defense to the early detection of breast cancer; the goal is to detect the mass before it spreads (metastasizes). This is best accomplished by regular monthly tactile self examinations. BSE is free and convenient, as compared to clinical breast examination (CBE) by a physician or mammography. Early detection results in very favorable treatment and recovery statistics. Yet, studies also show that half of the breast cancer cases are discovered only after the mass has spread. The principle is if there is a small enough mass, and a large enough tactile deficit, a patient with advanced carpal tunnel syndrome, attempting to palpate the mass, may miss the feel of a lump of cancer. Why are half the cases discovered late? Either women don't check, don't care, or can't feel. If they check and care, but can't feel, they may miss a mass. If their tactile sense has been compromised, they are at greater risk for delayed discovery of the mass, and more likely to have a poor prognosis for recovery.
A similar conclusion applies to vulvar and testicular self examination. If the tactile deficit is great enough, and the mass small enough, the mass will be missed.
Carpal tunnel syndrome, an upper extremity ailment,(24A is associated with reduced sensation in the hand as measured by grip strength and tactile sensitivity, with reduced flexion strength, and with slow reaction time.
3. Objects of the Invention
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for testing a device which will prolong the onset of symptoms for a person having upper extremity nerve pathology, the method comprising the steps of:
providing the person with a device,
instructing the person on the proper use of the device, as determined by the manufacturer or creator,
establishing a base line data for the person,
monitoring the person so the use is consistent with the instructions,
measuring changes in the person's symptoms,
having use of a second, different device,
repeating the previous steps with at least one different device,
comparing the results of monitoring use and measuring changes to determine a preferred device
selecting a device which prolongs the onset of symptoms of nerve pathology.
Another object of the invention is to establish a new use for all devices or products that improve the prognosis for treatment of the 150 different metabolic and non metabolic conditions that are precursors for carpal tunnel syndrome, by prolonging the onset of symptoms and improving tactile sensation.
Another object of the invention is to find a new use for the efficient keyboard, in which the use of the keyboard reduces finger flexion, by establishing use of efficient keyboards prolong the onset of symptoms of median nerve entrapment.
Another object of the invention is to establish a method for testing and preventing the onset of symptoms of nerve pathology, wherein the structures adjacent to the nerve include the nine flexor tendons next to the median nerve.
Another object of the invention is to establish a method for testing and preventing the onset of symptoms of nerve pathology, wherein the work of the nine flexor muscles next to the median nerve is shifted to the lumbricals of the fingers, the dorsal interossei of the hand, the volar (aka palmar) interossei muscles.
Another object of the invention is to establish a method for testing “dose-response curve,” the amount of repetitive motion required to cause carpal tunnel syndrome.
Another object of the invention is to establish a new use for all devices or products that reduce inflammation to the median nerve, by improving the discovery of cancer mass by subcutaneous self examination by increasing tactile sensation by decreasing median nerve entrapment.
Another object of the invention is to establish a method for testing a person, having upper extremity nerve pathology, in order to determine a device which will advance the earlier detection of subcutaneous masses, including maladies, by self examination, the method comprising the steps of:
providing a person with a device demonstrated to prolong the onset of symptoms of nerve pathology,
instructing the person on the proper use of the device, as determined by the manufacturer or creator,
monitoring the person so the use is consistent with the instructions,
instructing the person in detecting typical masses by finger and hand palpating through a opaque cover,
establishing a base line data for the person and onset time duration for operating the device,
measuring changes in the person's symptoms,
repeating the previous steps with at least one different device,
comparing the results of monitoring use and measuring changes to determine a preferred device,
obtaining a dose response,
instructing person to use device for less than duration required to achieve dose response,
instructing the person in preserving and improving the tactile sensation of the hand and finger tips for self examination.
Another object of the invention is to establish a method for testing devices or products that reduce inflammation to the median nerve.